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Re-growing Lettuce

If you have been on Pinterest lately you’ve seen pins about re-growing Romaine Lettuce.

It’s not a hard concept. Stick the crown end in water after you’ve cut off all the lettuce. I figured I ‘d give it a shot and I have to say, so far I have been amazed. We’ll see what happens going forward.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 4

All I did was pop the lettuce into a jar of water. Every other day I have rinsed off the crown and changed out the water.

PS: I do not recommend slicing a bit off the bottom when re-growing romaine. It makes the lettuce grow slower.

263 thoughts on “Re-growing Lettuce”

Amanda…i just have to tell you I just said the exact thing…this blows my mind! My daughter and her friend thought that was quite a strong reaction for lettuce! Then I read your post and cracked up! And of course shared with the girls…SEE??! This is a normal reaction!!

You can use most of the white, too. I’ve tried this one. the hard part is finding something that doesn’t allow the onion to fall over in the water. My mom suggested putting them in a pot with dirt and just keep the dirt moist. That should work, since I’ve cut scallions already in the dirt and they do regrow.

What if a person stuck toothpicks in the onions, like you do for Avocados to re-start a plant? You could use toothpicks in any of the veggies to keep in upright and they won’t fall or tip under the water level!

use a screen material and place over top of container, make holes large enough for stalks. you can hold the screen down on the outer edges with a rubber band or a string. this allows sunlight through and is easy for rinsing and replacing water.

That does work, put the white part with the brown spindly ends into the soil and water, i have had this going for a few months, i just cut the green and it continues to grow. it is on my kitchen window sill. just remember to water it.

That would make sense, because, if you haven’t ever had a yard full of them, wild onions do exactly the same thing when you mow them down! :) Thanks for the tip! Very excited to give this a try with the lettuce, as it does get pricey in the grocery store at times. :) Science project here we come!! :)

Are you trying to grow new life in city water that is chlorinated? I once tried sprouting alfafa seeds and they wouldn’t sprout until I changed to using well water (or botled purified water) to sprout them in

GMO was designed to enable glycophosphate to be used in fields to control weeds, not to prevent regrowth. The chemical stays within the plant grown and is ingested by us making this very dangerous. The more chemical free we can be the safer we will be. Try using distilled water instead of water with chlorine. Garden Cynde

The white part is the root so you would not want to cut that off..I did this last year and I found that I had to stick them into a gravel base (like the aquarium kind, that small) to make them stand up and not rot. and keep it wet. I also had to rinse them nearly every day because it got kinda funky. There is probably a better way to do it….

Chef Tor Sporre’ says: cut the scallion off 1/2 inch above the base, not including roots. Plant outside preferably and harvest the part you need, white part too. Llike chives it will grow forever. AND survives the winter in our CT zone 6.

I have grown chives and grren onions every year. I live in the mountains and just leave them out side. When winter hits the chives die out like the onions BUT COME BACK IN THE SPRING WITH WATER.
THEY ARE IN THE DIRT

My cat usted to jump up on counter for anything he could find. I don’t like cays on the counter so I set a couple of mouse traps on counter. One encounter with the mouse trap and no more cat on counter. Won’t hurt the cat just scare the hell out of him.

Ever thought of regrowing celery in very moist soil instead of just water??? If the cats like celery water have a dish fro them and hopefully they will leave your regrowth process alone…who am I kidding… but it’s worth a try. I plant the regrowth straight into a very wet spot in the garden, so far it works.

Teresa – please ignore the advice about mouse traps; those are a recipe for crushed toes, and nobody should be suggesting it unless they plan on paying to have your cat’s mangled paws surgically repaired or pay to have the limb amputated!!!
I have multiple cats, and they have been known to jump on the counter. You can get a motion-sensor device at a pet store that attaches straight to a can of air (after taking off the top to expose the tube) and it sprays a harmless loud SSSSHHHHH at them when it sees movement. It scares the heck out of them, and nobody has the chance of getting harmed.

Not to sound like a harp, but….My pets have never been allowed on tables or counter tops! The cats do not always have clean little toes. Sorry, but I cringe when I see a cat roaming freely on the counter while someone is standing there cooking. now…. I love growing herbs & fresh greens, hubby is an ex-chef & loves to cook with fresh ingredients. It’s right there for you.

ladys vegs does not hurt your cats or dogs i take and give my animals a mixer i make weekly
i take chix livers jiffy cornbread mix Onion power garlic power 2 eggs and cheese and mix all in my blender and pour it up in a baking dish and bake for 35 minutes when it ids done i slice up in strips and small peaces and but in snack bags and freeze till i need them i take out a couple of bags mic. for 30 seconds and that is my snacks for my babies they love it and keeps fleas off of them because of the garlic fleas don’t like the glaric that comes out of their pores so no vegs are not harmful ;like the vets say they just won’t you to buy their food and snakes

Raw onions in quantity can poison dogs. Fleas don’t care one way or the other about garlic, they will feed on an animal reeking of garlic. Take it from a vet tech who’s seen way too many animals “treated” with garlic who need real flea preventative. Save your pets the torment and spring for something that actually works.

as a veterinarian I will back up what daclifford said, and also add that garlic can poison your dog as well, the eggs and chicken livers are excellent sources of proteins/vitamins, the jiffy cornbread mix is eh, and I would avoid the onion and garlic powders you mentioned at all cost.

Pets and Onions
Each Layer Can Poison Your Pets
Onions
Many people love onions, and there are plenty of foods that we enjoy that contain them. As always, we must remember that what is great and tasty for us can be extremely harmful for our pets.

Onions contain an ingredient called thiosulphate which is toxic to cats and dogs. The ingestion of onions causes a condition called hemolytic anemia, which is characterized by damage to the red blood cells. Onion toxicity can cause the red blood cells circulating through your pet’s body to burst.

I have heard the garlic does help w fleas and I use to chop it into their soft food, they r still around but that was a tough yr for fleas, garlic and brewers yeast didn’t help! Although switching away from “frontline” to “advantax” worked! I think the fleas have gotten resistant to frontline!

I planted a pineapple top – loved and cared for the beautiful plant for 5 years and she finally grew a baby pineapple. The baby took 6 months to mature. It was a very small fruit, but a fruit none-the-less.

We cut off the tops of the pineapples and plant them in soil. Takes a little while to ‘mature enough – but eventually they will grow a pineapple and thereafter will grow a new pineapple every 2 years. (We live in Florida – so we
put them directly in the yard – but I suppose they could be grown in tubs.)

Be patient…. It takes a pineapple plant about three years to produce one fruit. I have heard the process can be sped up some, byt grinding up about 1/2 of an aspirin tablet in 1/2 cup of water & pour the solution into the center of a 2-year-old pineapple plant.

With a pineapple, you can’t cut the top off. You have to twist it off, so the root buds stay intact. This is the only way the new plant will produce fruit. Also it’s time consuming. Don’t expect to see fruit from this type of planting until at least the fourth year. The first couple years, it will just be a plant. Then the next couple years, you will get red or blue blooms, then the fruit will produce.

Pineapple will regrow it takes 3 years for it to bear fruit. We had a plant in our backyard when we lived in Florida and the plant when we moved in had a pineapple on it we read up and replanted the top and wen we moved 3 years later our plant that we replanted had 3 pineapples on it and we ended up giving the plant to a friend as it was to large to move with us. There are some tips and tricks to trick the pineapple plant to produce sooner but have not had the time to try them yet.

We have replanted our pineapples for years. They do take two years to produce a pineapple. After you cut that one, one or two more will grow (at the same time), then that is it. The plant will no longer produce fruit. So we pull that one out and plant another. We have several fifth and sixth generation plants. The best pineapple you will ever taste! Just be careful because the rabbits know when they are almost ripe and we have lost several.

Pineapples do well, i have done them and at this time have 2 going, the fruit is not quite as large, but just as sweet and yummy. Just stick them in the ground, no need to put the tops in water, yes the tops. Makes a beautiful plant while waiting for the fruit,i put mine out under a tree that gets semi hot sun.

It wouldn’t hurt to put a pinch of Miracle Grow in the water. I have gotten fresh basil that has roots and all, and planted it, that grows well. Potatoes would be really slow to get more, but the vines are neat.

Suzy, you can create your own fertilizer using many household items, like spent eggshells, old hair, vaccuum bag dust and coffee grounds. The best way is to mulch your used food items and mix it into the soil. The drawback is that mulching can be stinky and takes time. For a price there are mulching containers available at local hardware stores.

Uh, the -whole- purpose? That might be a common purpose, but I would do this because vegetables are expensive despite being an absolute necessity for any sort of healthy diet. It’s difficult to afford a vegetable based diet, and this is a way to significantly cut that cost. Most of us can’t afford to use our dollar vote for non-GMO and organic products, unfortunately. It’s not like we could afford miracle grow, either, though.

I read an article where most avocado plants grown this way produce no fruit, that they have to be grafted. They said it was best to just buy a grafted plant for $10 bucks. The one I started is too small and if it never gives avocados, I’ll know why.

I may start sever just to see if the mail female thing is an issue but I do plan on buying a couple of grafted ones too.

My dad has a single avocado tree… no others in the vicinity… produces lots of fruits yearly. But, as some have mentioned, grafting is necessary to get fruits from a young tree. When grown straight from seeds, they take years to fruit. Can take anywhere from 5 to 10 years before you see a fruit produced. Same goes for many other tropical fruits like mangoes and others. They need to be grafted with a fruit bearing mature tree for it to fruit.

The man next to me has planted both avocados and mangos from the seeds (pits) The mango produces great fruit still but the avocado is now slowed down its production of fruit because of the age.of the tree. These trees are about 20 feet high. He also planted a pineapple and it did grow fruit but took a long long time. He died about 5 years ago but was really proud of his accomplishments in his trees.

I now have about 6 young (2-3 years) grown from seeds, and 2 older trees. Trees grown from seed require about 6 years to produce fruit. The fruit is not always identical to the seed used to grow them. (i.e. Haas seeds may produce fruit that is somewhere inbetween Haas and other, larger, avocados). Some trees produce every other year. My 2 older trees, now 8-10 years old, are over 40′ tall and this year produced about 100+ excellent avocados. They produced about half of that two years ago but very little last year. The amount & size of fruit also depends on fertilization and watering. If you use grafts your tree will produce sooner, and the fruit will be identical to the parent tree. My trees grow in SW Florida.

I grow most vegetables by simply cutting off the root end (even if just a stub, like most vegetables purchased in stores) and sticking it in good soil. This includes lettuce, onions, spring onions, carrots, celery, etc. I also have 3 pineapples grown simply sticking the tops of store bought fruit in soil. They take several years to produce a pineapple. I grow orange, grapefruit and other fruit trees from seeds saved from purchased or grown fruit, and most other trees from cuttings. Most herbs can be grown from cuttings using water or soil..

We started an avocado tree from a seed, this way. I think it took 7 years to get the first avocado fruit. Fall, 2013, was the first year the tree bore fruit. Of course unknown soil condition may also have been an issue.

Growing up, we had a huge potato field. We would harvest enough to fill a 12 ft x 12 ft bin that could get 2-4 feet high. We ate off of them all winter long (every night for dinner was a potato dish), plus we canned up the new baby potatoes. By early spring, there were more than enough potatoes sprouting to replant. We cut the potatoes into pieces, leavening plenty of flesh around each eye/sprout. These are called potato seeds. Potatoes like a well drained, sandy-blend, fertile soil. I have heard/seen potatoes grown in bales of hay, totes filled with soil, and many other options. They are cheap enough, experiment away!

Growing vegetables in hay can produce lots of weeds and mice infestation. Straw is a much better alternative. Make sure though to follow the directions and use a heavy nitrogen fertilizer and water it to allow the straw to heat up before planting. Garden Cynde

Pineapple can grow a smaller pineapple. I grew one many years ago as my science fair project. It isn’t anything that can be done fast but it can happen. I have one that I started this past summer, I can’t wait for it to warm up so I can set it back out in the sun. :)

I am so excited about the possibilities here! We have a mason jar with green onions in them in a northern facing window and the grow really well and their taste is mu stronger that store bought, Can wait to try the other ideas. Just Brilliant!
Thank you for sharing this!

garlic grows like onions so you should have no problems growing it. Make sure that you put the root part down. It is very easy to grow outside. Be careful where you plant it though because it does spread.

I didn’t use my ginger and it started to sprout. I planted it in soil in a clay pot on my front porch and it’s growing leaves. I did the same thing with fresh turmeric root. I haven’t attempted to harvest the roots yet. I live in a year round mild climate.

This is awesome!! I’ve saved the seeds from favorite flowers, then planted them in the Spring, never having to buy new seeds. My Grama was raised on a farm, growing everything from scratch, and as I remember, she always had plant cuttings started in jars on all the window sills. Can you imagine how pure the food would be with no additives like in stores today?

I grow sprouts all the time from dried lentils. Soak them overnight. In the morning, wash them off and cover them lightly with see-through plastic (I use a Chinese takeout container that comes with lid and don’t close it completely). Rinse once a day (you want them to stay moist) and recover them, and in about 5 days, you have sprouts for salads and sandwiches. You can soak them for a bit when they’re done to help separate the shells out. Let them dry and store in the refrigerator.

I’ve put my stuff in soil after it grew a little in the water. That way out gets the nutrition it needs :) I just put them in the window in the window and move them somewhere warm when it gets really cold.

Take a stalk of lemon grass.. put in water until it roots about an inch of water in a vase will do.. change water weekly. roots will grow .. then plant outside.. you will have a bush in a month or two.. harvest the stalks before the frost..

You can grow just about anything like this. If you have something you use the cut leaves of, like herbs you can cut a small section off with about 3 or 4 leaves. Very carefully use a razor blade to scrape off the green from one side of the stem, revealing the white pith inside. Do not remove or touch the pith. This works best if you dip the cut in an organic root starter. Let it sit for a few minutes while you fill your small jar. You can kep them from falling over by making a tight grid over the jar with duct tape or rubber bands. Or cut a ice of foam to fit into the top. Cut a tiny hole in the center of the foam and 1 cut from center to outer edge. Insert sprig by opening the split and sliding the stem into the little hole. Inset the foam and stem into the top of the jar.
Aso, all methods work best if the jar is painted or covered to recreate the darkness of soil. You can paint with different dark colors to make a pretty arrangement. Be sure to change the water every 2 days or so. If you want to fertilize use organics. No fertilization until roots are well set. Use 1/2 the amount because there is no soil to take any up.

When I use green onions I leave the white part with the roots and a about on inch of the green part, put in a pot of soil and there you go, Green onions when you need them. I always have green onions for my recipes.

IF you have a craving for pineapple, the same thing works for pineapple.
It’s exactly how the plantations re-grow their fields in Hawaii.
They use the same plant for about 4 or 5 seasons (harvests), then replant the fields with the crowns of the last harvest.
The new fruit grows out of the top of the pineapple. So, each time one fruits, cut off the crown of the fruit, and plant that one. The sweetest harvest is normally the third or fourth harvest – or so I’ve heard.
* * *
In commercial farming, flowering can be induced artificially, and the early harvesting of the main fruit can encourage the development of a second crop of smaller fruits. Once removed during cleaning, the top of the pineapple can be planted in soil and a new plant will grow. Slips and suckers are planted commercially. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pineapple ]

I am living in Northern Ontario and it is cold up here. I have recently heard about doing this with a green onion and put 3 end cuttings into a glass jar under a week ago. I’ve changed the water every couple of days and the roots are really growing as well as a bit of green growth coming up from the bulb end. My window gets a morning sun and a draft. I keep the kitchen around 15’C at night and 18’C in the daytime, so it is not like a hothouse at all.

I had purchased some pots to plant herbs in last fall and was not able to buy any seeds as it was too late in the season. I am very interested though in growing basil, parsley and a few other things in my kitchen come May (once our snow is melting). Any suggestions? i HAD been interested in doing cherry or grape tomatoes and some other food in a large planter inside my dining room (full window to almost the floor), but read that the soil needs to be acidic for the tomatoes and I have no idea what would grow well with it, unless perhaps a flower of some sort?

Is anyone experienced with doing this at all? If so suggestions are more than welcome as we get our groceries shipped up and they are not fresh by the time they arrive, not to mention the cost added to the items for the shipping is out-pricing my desire to purchase fresh produce if possible!

Do you have any idea how many times you can re-grow the same plant? What I mean is can you use up the romaine, do the jar and water trick to re-grow, put it back in your fridge, use it all up again, and do the jar and water trick again? Or is it more of a one time thing?

I am in Ontario (more southern), and have garlic greens and green onions in a pot of soil in my kitchen. I cut the greens every two days. I have the best luck with herbs if I go them in a pot all summer and then bring it in the same pot. I have trouble getting enough light indoors to grow basil without it getting leggy.

Do you have to plant every starter in soil? I just leave my green onions in water all of the time. We used to put them in soil but it go too hot so we brought them in in water and they are great.
Would Broccoli work too? That’d be exciting. If you can grow indoors you can get everything all year round!

Iceberg Lettuce has very few nutrients. The easiest lettuce to grow would probably be romaine or any of the loose leaf lettuces. In the south we refer to the loose leaf lettuces as “cut and come again lettuces”.

Katie, I’m not going to judge you for liking iceberg. It tastes good and is full of water, which your body needs. I am not going to question someone why they drink water when there is no nutrients in it. Water is good for you if you get it through food or drinking it.

But there are nutrients in iceberg, just not as many as in other varieties! Plus if you like the taste and it’s not junk, why not? On my sandwiches, I prefer iceberg, but in salad, I like other varieties. And water is always good for you!

This past summer I planted mango seeds directly into the earth. I now have 5 2.5 foot trees!!! I live in Savannah, Ga and have fruit trees in the area, so I’m hoping the will give fruit in around 5 years until then I will continue to watch the beautiful tree grow.

The nice part about growing this way witch I do all winter long in Ontario is get your kids involved. If you have multi kids place their names on their container and you can really get the excitement going. Also if you have a hard time getting your kids to eat veggies then you can grow COLORED veggies. All you need to do is place a few drops of food dye or natural coloring like beet juice to your carrots and get a really purple carrot/potato ect. for green use parsley juice and so on.

While I was living in Florida I did plant and grow pineapples. The do take about 2-3 years to grow a fruit. It was small but very sweet. I was advised to plant more than one for better results. I will tell you they take up alot of room. Can’t wait to try the celery.

But u r using bottled or reverse osmosis water tho right? In order for it to be organic u can’t use tap water right? You rinse it every day but do u also. Change the water in the jar everyday as well? I definetly want to try this!!!!

my lettuce was growing beautifully…nice and tall…then it started to rot from the inside out :-(
I changed the water everyday…anything else I can do?
The lettuce tasted a little bitter.
The celery was also growing nicely then it went limp :-(
I’m not having good luck!

I have grown sweet potatoes just for fun but right now I have green onions growing. I cut the bottom of a pop bottle off to start them in. It has little pockets to hold the bulbs in. Them moved them to a used plastic container so they can stand up.

I bought a bunch of mint. I was trying to keep it as fresh as possible so I put it on a jar with water and now it has roots and neww sprouts. So now I’m growing or at least attempting to grow anything I can possibly can. ^-^

The trick to planting a spreading plant like mint… take something like a metal wash tub- anything you can knock out the bottom of and literally bury it in the ground. it will contain the Mint, lemon balm, catnip, spearmint etc, but allow it to grow. And sure to harvest it all in the fall and dry it.. great tea…and weed it out rip tons out in the spring or fall, and give it away to anyone who wants it. :)

as an added post – I planted the remaining stalk of romaine and iceberg lettuce, and about 4 days after putting in water they’re both sending up new growth like little champs (just tap water, no special filtered water or add-ins)

I have tried the celery and yes it did work I think I could have replanted outside when it gets to be 4inches the stock seemed to be weaker so I cutting and lett it regrow can’t wait to try what the others have done

I may be missing something here, but don’t plants need more than just plain water to grow? I know these will all START to grow! I’ve been doing that sort of thing since Kindergarten (1962).
But what does rinsing accomplish? And how do you deal with the fact that tap water is full of chlorine, etc?

I have regrown spring onions, celery, ginger, among other vegetables. Except for the spring onions, I cut a small slice off at the bottom of the root, and watch them grow!!! never thought of using the small wide mouth cannin jars though, GREAT insight.

Nice blog! The rabbits came and ate some of my lettuce. I had four plants growing in a rectangular pot outside. They been growing all year, but anyway, after the rabbit came and left one uprooted, I put it in a glass container for looks and it is so healthy. I’m going to try this out! Also, I’d like to try this with ginger.

Could I ever save some money doing this with Romaine!!!! My diet requires a lot of this type of stuff and am I ever going to give it a try. It is expensive and usually browns within two days (at least some of the leaves) and becomes a soggy mess soon after that. When I buy it, I’ve got to concentrate on that package for meal after meal until it is gone in order to get my money’s worth (HA). I’ll be going to the vegetable stand I have near me today and finding proper vessels for a bunch of it. I may never have to actually buy the stuff for a long time. TANKS!!!!

Did this with both red and green swiss chard about 2 weeks ago. My green chard has only grown about an inch and the red swiss chard is now about 3 inches. I water as needed and change all water once a week. Am going to try more things now that I know it works. I have a perfect window that gets sun more than half the day.

I’ve tried to do this about a hundred times over the last 5 years, and the celery always starts off really well, grows about 3 inches and then the whole thing gets moldy and dies. I don’t know what to do. I change the water almost every day and keep it in the sun. Got any ideas?

This is brilliant i grow wheatgrass for my fiance juatdid my first harvest after 10 days and put it in juicer.. I got a glass worth but it tasted delicious and it helps his liver problems! I had some too and am pregnant 5 minutes later my tummy looks like ufo is jumping on a trampoline in my tummy. Am gona try the onions then

Reblogged this on Jasmine Sumayyah Washington and commented:
This is totally awesome and very practical. I absolutely HATE to waste food. My grandma grew up on a farm and her favorite saying was, “We ate everything on the pig but the oink.” haha People need to learn maximize usage of all goods and materials. And, minimize waste. We all should focus more on preservation and recycling as well. Global sustainability and practicalities. It may seem “obnoxious” to go to so much trouble over leftover lettuce but it’s really quite ingenious. These are the types of activities we should be integrating into our public school curriculum. If nothing, at least students will have learned a cool agricultural science lesson. Bottom line, so many people across the globe are starving and our ecosystem is collapsing. Learn to truly appreciate what you have and also, appreciate the bigger picture.

There is so much waste from school lunches,… i used to have the students bring certain things back to the classroom to help “feed” the mulch jar that “feeds” the above plants we were growing (lettuce , onions, carrots…. and small apple and orange trees :)) They loved it…

This is awesome! I just started mine last night and I can’t wait! I did pretty much the same thing with sweet potatoes last year, plucked of the sprouts and put those in water for a few days and planted them in the garden voila! sweet potatoes! I love it!

I grew romain lettuce inside last year untill it was warm enough to plant it outside in my garden. It grew all summer. I also grew celery and kale which lasted all the way up till Oct planted in my garden. Also turnip greens. All were bought at the grocery store and put in water in my kitchen then planted outside in dirt.

I was researching my own blog post and found you on Pinterest. I do this with green onions but my eyes are open now to all of the other foods that can re-grow themselves quote easily in my windowsill or garden! Great post:)

I planted ginger into the ground and it just grew. It does not matter the size, use what you have. It does multiply. To have a larger grouping and prettier stand you would need to break up or use a hand size ginger from the store. It roots and sends up shoot in a few weeks, if I remember correctly.